Shadow of the Demon Lord RPG – Kickstarter

The Kickstarter for Robert J. Schwalb’s thrilling new tabletop role-playing game Shadow of the Demon Lord started today. I have been waiting impatiently for this to start since it was announced last year, and today is the day. You can find a link to the kickstarter here:

Shadow of the Demon Lord™ is a tabletop roleplaying game that blends elements of horror and fantasy with a slick new game system suitable for novice and experienced gamers.

Robert J. Schwalb brings over a decade of experience as a game designer to the creation of this game, having worked on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, and three editions of Dungeons & Dragons. Schwalb’s newest creation offers intuitive rules, fast play, and a dark and nasty setting perfect for creating stories of dark fantasy.

“I set out to create a game that makes few demands on Game Masters and players, and which stays out of the way of telling a great story,” says Schwalb. Set in a world imperiled by a cosmic threat known as the Demon Lord, the game has players assume the roles of survivors, explorers, and adventurers struggling against a range of horrific and disturbing monsters, weird magic, and perilous situations. Schwalb adds, “While I made the game system friendly to newcomers, I also understand that veteran gamers like their toys. The streamlined game system let me layer in evocative options to keep the game fun and interesting for everyone at the table.”

Since announcing Shadow of the Demon Lord in October of 2014, Schwalb has traveled widely to demonstrate how the game plays in stores and at conventions from Asheville, North Carolina to Seattle, Washington; from Birmingham, Alabama to Fort Wayne, Indiana. During this time, he has finished writing and designing the game and is ready to move into production. Schwalb explains, “I decided to run a Kickstarter campaign to crowd source the $30,000 I need to move the game through production and get it into the gamers’ hands.”

Backers of Shadow of the Demon Lord will receive copies of the game in PDF or print, a pack of five adventures (each playable in a single session), and a Starter Guide designed to help new players create starting characters quickly so they can play right away, all by the end of 2015. As well, when the campaign funds, Schwalb Entertainment will reveal stretch goals—funding milestones above and beyond the base goal—that unlock additional goodies. Examples include a bigger rulebook, PDF adventures (each also playable in a single session) by industry luminaries including Monte Cook, Chris Pramas, and Jason Bulmahn, fiction, game supplements, and much more.

Kickstarter campaigns operate under an “all-or-nothing” model. If the campaign doesn’t reach its goal by the end of the 30-day period, Schwalb Entertainment receives no payment from the backers. For more information about the campaign, be sure to follow Robert J. Schwalb on Twitter (@rjschwalb) and Facebook to get updates about the campaign’s progress, new add-ons, and stretch goals. For more information about Shadow of the Demon Lord or to schedule an interview with Robert, please email info@schwalbentertainment.com or send him a Tweet @schwalb_ent.

The best way to help the campaign is to become a backer. As little as $6 gets you a PDF copy of the Starter Guide. Pledging at higher levels gains you access to additional content or even gets Robert to run a game for you and your friends. Of course, if you cannot make a pledge, you can still help by spreading the word on your own social media networks.